Fremd’s Doering generates another victory

Like grandfather, like granddaughter.

Rachel Doering’s grandfather Paul, who lives in Wisconsin, was a very successful men’s softball pitcher in the 1950s and 60s.

“I never saw him pitch but I talked to him a lot about it,” Rachel said. “He used to give me advice.”

Now as a Fremd senior pitcher, Rachel can give some advice to upcoming Viking pitchers.

They surely will be in awe when they see her statistics.

The right-hander threw a 1-hitter at Buffalo Grove on Monday in an 8-1 triumph for the Vikings (21-5, 8-2), who were the home team on the scoreboard.

While improving to 11-2, Doering struck out nine.

“Rach was really throwing hard and locating the ball real well,” said Fremd coach Jim Weaver. “That’s as well as I’ve seen her throw in a long time. If she stays right there, we’ll be in great shape.”

It took a while for the game to shape into Fremd’s favor on the scoreboard.

Buffalo Grove (8-14, 4-6) struck first when it scored in the second inning without a hit.

Becca Winter led off with a walk, advanced to third when Jessie Lazzara reached on an error and came home when she tagged up on Ali Levato’s foul fly out to right field.

But BG did not score again as Doering retired 18 of the final 19 batters she faced.

Erin Barton, who had BG’s only hit with single to center in the first, was her team’s only batter to reach base (on an error) in the final five innings.

“She’s a good pitcher,” said BG coach Jamie Paul of Doering. “She is a little quicker than some of the pitchers we’d been facing. But we did make some contact. We’ve just got to get a little more aggressive in certain situations.”

BG freshman ace Julia Camardo (6-10) took a 1-0 lead into the fourth inning before Fremd jumped ahead with 3 runs on 2 hits and 3 errors.

“We started out slow,” Doering said. “But then we picked it up and had some great at-bats.”

Senior Megan Hubbard (2-for-3) and junior Ashlynne Schwantz (1-for-2) had singles in the third inning. Seniors Brittany Ciura and Caitlin Patenaude both reached on errors which brought in runs.

The unearned runs gave Vikings’ fans and coach Jim Weaver a chance to breathe a little easier with the 2-run lead.

“Even on the bus ride over, I’m concerned about every game we play, it doesn’t matter who we are playing,” Weaver said. “You can just ask these guys (assistant coaches Christine Vlaming and T.J. Valacek). They will tell you.”

Doering’s cushion increased in the fifth inning when Fremd scored 4 times.

A leadoff walk to sophomore shortstop Leigh Farina and back-to-back singles by junior Michelle Mazur (2-for-4) and Hubbard set up the big inning. Hubbard’s single to the left field fence drove in Farina for the 4-1 lead.

Kristie Salerno bunted in a run and a groundout by catcher Janelle Schneider scored another. Patenaude (2-for-3) also had a single and Schwantz reached on an error which brought in another run.

“It seemed like we have one bad inning (fourth) and we let up a bit,” Paul added. “They scored some runs we shouldn’t have allowed and then we compound it with another error. We had to stop the bleeding and we couldn’t.”

The Vikes got their final run in the sixth on an RBI infield single by Schneider.

BG converted a nifty 5-2-3 double play in the inning when third baseman Erin Barton threw home to catcher Amanda Salzman, who threw to first baseman Becca Winter.

“We have to break down some things in practice,” Paul added. “And hopefully we’ll come back strong on Wednesday (against Conant).”